Updated June 27

The city’s utility division is continuing its software conversion.

While the conversion continues,

• there will be no delinquent charges until all payment systems are fully operable
• utility bills may arrive 3-5 days later than normal and may look different
• there may be a small delay in the processing of payments

City converting to new utility billing software

The online and phone payment systems are unavailable until the conversion is complete,customers have other options to pay their bills in the meantime:

• bills can be paid through the mail with the provided envelope
• there is a drop box located on the south side of the Civic Center marked for utility payments
• payments are accepted at the window located in the Civic Center Room 104 during regular business hours
• a drop box located next to the payment window if a receipt is not required

The City of Great Falls utilities department has been transitioning to utility billing software called Tyler New World.

The software conversion was scheduled from May 22 through June 3 and to convert to the new system, the current system was shut down and the implementation date for the new system was June 3 barring any unforeseen technical issues, according to the city.

Monthly billing statements will look the same, but account numbers will change and will be reflected in the June billing statements. The first six numbers will remain the same, but the numbers after the dash will be dropped and replaced with a three digit number, according to the utilities division.

City changing policy regarding tenant utility bills

Customers will need to replace old account numbers with the new one for all payments, otherwise payments may be posted late or misapplied, according to the city.

Online payments and payments made over the phone are processed through a third party vendor called Paymentus, which was being integrated into the city’s new billing software system.

Online payments and those made over the phone before 11:59 p.m. on May 21 will be applied in the current system.

City utility billing software now live [2020]

According to Melissa Kinzler, city finance director, the conversion itself was completed over the Memorial Day weekend.

The issues taking longer to complete have been with the city’s separate payment processor, Paymentus, which is having connectivity issues with the New World financial software, Kinzler told The Electric.

Without Paymentus working properly, credit card payments online and by phone haven’t been possible, which has increased the volume of walk-in payments beyond the normal rate, slowing the processing of payments, Kinzler said.

City staff is currently meeting weekly with Paymentus and New World on the issues and Kinzler said they hope to have the issue resolved in the next month.

In 2020, the city had transitioned from Tyler New World software to the Tyler Munis system.

City transitioning to new software, having conversion issues [2020]

“There were major issues with the Tyler Munis software. The software never worked as advertised and there was not adequate support for the software. For better customer service it was determined that we should go back to Tyler New World software,” Kinzler told The Electric.

Transitioning the payroll process from New World to Munis was never completed and city finance and utilities moved back to the New World software that payroll was still on, she said.

Kinzler said the city was credited with Tyler to help with the conversion, which is still in process, and training but it will take a few months to get the final numbers on the city’s cost.

Earlier this year, the city changed its policy on utility billing for tenants from offering as a courtesy a request to bill tenant form to property owners.

That meant property owners could have the city put utility bill accounts in a tenant’s name.

Ultimately, under state law, the property owner is responsible for paying utility bills.

Melissa Kinzler, city finance director, said during a May City Commission work session that “it’s Just become cumbersome, time consuming process.”

City utilities payment window closed May 30-31 for software conversion

She said city staff started looking at that process as the city is preparing for new federal lead and copper service line rules, since those require specific notifications.

Kinzler said that 2,855 accounts, or eight percent of the city’s utility customers, fall into the tenant account category, but they take up roughly 60 percent of staff time.

During the May 21 City Commission work session, Kinzler said staff was proposing to phase out the current process of putting tenants on utility accounts and instead send all utility bills to the property owner, who can then decide how to either charge residents directly or forward the bill to them.

That will simplify the city’s process for sending lead and copper rule notifications to property owners rather than having to send updates every times there’s a change in tenant, Kinzler said.

City Commission approves utility, sanitation fee increases

The change also removes the city from issues between property owners and tenants, and staff will no longer have to process tenant forms, track delinquent tenant accounts or do final tenant meter reads, Kinzler said.

Kinzler told commissioners that the city finance department oversees utility billing and the policy change was coordinated between finance, legal and public works.

The city has offered property owners the option of putting tenants on utility bills for the last 20 years, Kinzler said.

“It does not make sense to keep doing the same process we have,” she told commissioners.

Kinzler told The Electric this week that the process will take until the end of the year to phase out all landlord-tenant situations.

She said that currently no positions will be eliminated, but it will be considered as those landlord-tenant billing situations are eliminated.

There are currently five billing clerks/cashiers, one full-time billing technician and one operations supervisor, Kinzler said.

All of the utility billing clerks are new with two current vacancies, Kinzler said, and the longest serving clerk has been with the city for 14 months so it will take time to get clerks up to full capacity in addition to the conversion to the new software.

She said that full-time customer service from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. is also necessary so as clerks become fully trained and landlord-tenants are eliminated, city administrators will look at cross-training the customer service staff and assigned additional tasks when needed or eliminating a position.

Contact the city’s utilities customer service line at 406-727-7660 with questions about bills or accounts.